Sasha - Art School Journey

[Ushillust]

Love your artworks! That battleaxe is drawn very well I think. Can't wait to see how much you'll progress over the next month or so!

[_Sasha_]

Thanks! I actually used a bounding box in perspective for the battleaxe, so I guess that little trick works quite well haha. And me too, let's both get in as much improvement as possible!

[_Sasha_]

Finished off the Nude figure Drawing 1 video today. Here's the results of today's work ^-^

I'm not super fond of the 8 head grid but then again, I don't think I've ever measured properly before so I'm fighting against my instincts.

Not the best gesture drawings I've ever done but I clearly need to work on them a bit, only 30 second ones today as I'm quite tired.

Any feedback is appreciated as always

[Kosmonaut]

Great stuff and for the grid thing I would use it more to think about the relationships between each part of the body measurement-wise because it isn't much help when it comes to doing more dynamic poses or poses that aren't static up and down. The figure you did on the first image I think its fine to exaggerate the pose a little as long as it still looks believable in the end, but that is unless you're going for an exact copy of the pose which I would still try to exaggerate it if that was the case. The first figure study looks fine to me though

[_Sasha_]

Thanks for the feedback! And yeah, I do tend to exaggerate poses when I do figure drawing, And I supose the finished piece doesn't feel too off. Although, I also feel like it's a good idea to get the angles and twisting right, that way I think I'll be able to express the poses I have in my head better.

[Kosmonaut]

I would agree with that as well it just depends on what your overall goal is when you go into a figure study. I am trying to exaggerate more so I am more for exaggerating a pose than trying to get it perfectly accurate it just depends on what you want to get out of it. keep up the good work/practice!

[Ushillust]

Doing good so far!

On the first figure I think it's fine and actually could look even more dynamic with a bit more exaggeration.
Also, if you look at the reference, she's leaning back quite a lot and putting almost all of her weight on her right leg. On your sketch she is putting a lot of her weight on her right leg as well, but there is a considerable amount put on her left.
Correct weight distribution can help make your poses feel more grounded and natural. Drawing a straight line from the head to the ground can help with that.

I recommend watching "Dynamic Figures: Why Your Poses Are Stiff" by David Finch on YouTube. He will explain gesture like Marc did, but he will also go more in-depth about the importance of weight.

I'm not that good at giving feedback, so please take what I said with a grain of salt. Some things may be correct, some may not be. Keep on improving!

[_Sasha_]

Thanks! I'll check out that video today. I suppose I haven't been that focused on the actual weight of the pose which is why my gesture drawings have never been great.

Very useful, will give it a try later.

[_Sasha_]

Okay, here's today's studies. Warm up with 8x 30 second, and 8x 1 minute gesture drawings. Then a few cylinder studies (traced)

Then after watching the video recommended by @leeireo (thanks). Took a bit of time to exaggerate some gestures and focus more on the gravity of the poses. I think they definitely look a lot more dynamic and I'm happy with the result, but it's definitely something I need to practise more.

[Ushillust]

I'm glad it has been of help! These are looking very good! I especially like these two, the ones I circled. I can really feel that gesture and weight going into the ground.

One thing you may want to consider though is putting an emphasis on getting that gesture of the whole pose first before putting in details like the one sketch there with the fairly detailed arm.

Or maybe your photo reference was just cropped that way from the beginning? If that's the case I recommend doing fullbody poses only for gesture drawings.

[_Sasha_]

That makes sense, I like the second one you circled most. And yeah I think focusing on the full body gesture is an important step to take, I guess I've done figure & gesture drawing for years and have gotten into some bad habits.

Will definitely focus more on that next time. Thanks for the feedback

[_Sasha_]

Sleepy day today and I don't want to overwork myself on this. So just a big set of 45 second gesture drawings (more relaxed than 30 seconds but still fast)

I did 4 pages more than this, but here's a the best page from the bunch. Definitely feeling like focusing more on rough shape and less detail is helping, and also trying to keep in mind the gravity and weight bearing leg. I'm happy with my progress on this already! Although, trying to get the legs and gravity right doesn't leave enough time to do arms hahaha

[_Sasha_]

Been a slow few days for me, got my booster vaccine and taking it easy.
Would love some feedback on a clean(ish) sketch I've been working on for a while. It's another character from the DnD campaign I'm in, A warforged that looks like an art mannequin. Any insight on how to really push the pose & composition considering the character in question?

I have been struggling to get him to feel right, I feel like it might be the fact the shapes need to be perfect otherwise it just feels off.

Anyway, I'll be back to giving other people feedback too in a couple days when I'm feeling a bit better!

[Kosmonaut]

While I don't have anything composition-wise you could try to push the pose by exaggerating the line of action of your character and building the body based off of that right now the line of action is a straight line from neck to feet so curving that line of action and making the body follow while still being believable is a great way to push a pose like tilting the torso slightly left or right or something along those lines

[LesleyCarol]

One thing I notice is the legs are disproportionately bigger that the torso and the arm reaching towards us. Also, turning the farthest arm in so it's holding the magic in front of it and then trimming the image from the right might help the composition.

[Ushillust]

Oooo that's a nice character concept! Love myself some fantasy themed art heh.

The sketch I did may be a bad example, but I've replicated the pose you've drawn on the far left and as you can see all the lines are almost parallel or perpendicular. In most cases having parallel lines like this on an organic figure will make them look very stiff and unlively.

For standing poses ( and in most cases all poses ) to look dynamic and lively you will generally want to leave those parallel lines out. I've recreated the pose by using lines that try to zigzag and meet each other and also included a bit of gesture. This can really help make your figures feel grounded and alive.

I'm not very well equipped to give criticism yet, so please take what I say with a grain of salt! Some things I say may be correct, some things may be wrong.

EDIT: Your character is a mannequin so maybe these don't apply, but depending on how willing you are to exaggerate the pose of the mannequin it could help make it look more animated.

[_Sasha_]

Thank you for your responses & feedback @Kosmonaut @LesleyCarol @leeireo

I'll take all of this feedback on board and note them as I continue that drawing. Lots of useful information to think about.

For now, here's a group of 30 second and 2 minute gesture drawings. Definitely feel like with the guidance from this community and consistent practise I'm visibly improving the gesture and movement I can convey in each pose. If there's any further advise anyone has for me to focus on I'll happily take it on board ^-^

[gellenvera]

Great job so far! These new gesture drawings show already ots of improvement! And those 2 min ones look super good! Keep up the great work!

[_Sasha_]

I haven't abandoned the other DnD character, but I felt like redesigning my character. Any feedback on the cleanish sketch would be appreciated. Want to dial in the anatomy and feel before doing anything polished.

I know the line weight is kinda messed up on some of the feathers but I'm going to blame the fact it's a "clean sketch" haha

[gellenvera]

That's a really neat design! I love the feathers too The only thing I noticed is the leg that's behind - that one looks a bit confusing. Her feet looks like it's vanishing ? But everything else looks really nice!